LETTER

One- or two-week triple therapy for Helicobacter pylori: questions of efficacy and inclusion of a dual therapy treatment arm

David Y Graham¹ and Yoshio Yamaoka¹

¹ Department of Medicine, Michael E DeBakey VAMC and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr D Y Graham
Michael E DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, RM 3A-320 (111D), 2002 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030, USA; dgraham@bcm.tmc.edu

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

We read with interest the recent paper comparing 1 and 2 weeks of triple therapy for Helicobacter pylori infection in patients with duodenal ulcer disease. (Gut 2007;56:475–9) H pylori is an infectious disease and the goal of treatment is to cure the infection. In 2007, one would hope to be able to reliably cure 95% of the treated patients (discussed by Graham et al).¹ In 1989, a successful treatment has been defined as one that cures >80% of the patients.² By 1995, it seemed that 90% was achievable.³ The Maastricht consensus conferences defined a useful therapy as the one with an intention to treat (ITT) cure rate of >80%, which is a relatively low hurdle (ie, those with cure rates of 80% would be unacceptable).⁵ Although the authors concluded that 7 and 14 days therapy provided essentially equivalent results, the focus should have been on . . . [Full text of this article]

Rocco Maurizio Zagari² and Franco Bazzoli²

² Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor F Bazzoli
Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Gastroenterologia, Università di Bologna, Policlinico S Orsola, Via Massarenti 9, 40138 Bologna, Italy; franco.bazzoli@unibo.it

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Relevant Article

Comparison of 1 and 2 weeks of omeprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin treatment for Helicobacter pylori eradication: the HYPER Study

Rocco Maurizio Zagari, Gabriele Bianchi-Porro, Roberto Fiocca, Giovanni Gasbarrini, Enrico Roda, and Franco Bazzoli
Gut 2007 56: 475-479. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]